CEO Cred Suffers Biggest Barometer Dip in 9 Years

Prepare an Alternative Corporate Spokesperson: CEO credibility declined 12 points to 38%—its biggest drop in nine years, reports Edelman in its 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, released Jan. 24. On the flip side, trust in regular employees as credible spokespersons rose 16 points from last year’s study. Other trust highlights include:

• In 17 of the 25 countries surveyed, government is now trusted by less than half to do what is right.
• Traditional media and online search engines are the most trusted sources of information for people searching for general news and information, new product information, news on an environmental crisis and company news.
• Social networking (88%), microblogging (86%) and content-sharing sites (75%) witnessed the most dramatic percentage increase as trusted sources of information about a company.
• In the U.S, trust in all media sources rose, with major jumps in the perceived trustworthiness of television, radio and newspapers as sources of information about a company—by 23%, 13% and 11%, respectively.
• 64% say that treating employees well is important to building their trust in a company, but only 27% say that business is doing a good job of that.